Forensics team gains experience at state finals

June 02, 2009

FLINT - The annual gathering of “the best of the best,” better known as the state Forensics Finals was held at the University of Michigan-Flint May 1.

The Gaylord forensics team sent seven members to this once-a-year competition. While no members of the team made it to the final round, the entire team gained valuable experience competing at this level.

Rachael Osantowski, a third-year qualifier, admitted that to be successful at the state level “you have to be on your game every round.”

Jason Kruger, a first-year competitor, added that he learned that there is “a lot I need to work on because I felt blown away by the competition.”

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According to coach Tim McPherson, “This tournament is unlike any other we compete in, everyone is good and just a slight mistake is all it takes to drop from first to fourth. Just competing at this level is an excellent experience for the team because they all have the potential to qualify again next year.”

With this experience in mind, each team member had a comment about what they would do differently next year. Kruger felt that his intro was “boring compared to everyone else’s,” and that he needed to work on “slowing down.”

Osantowski added that she needed to “sit down and breath,” because “being calm is essential.”

Jenny Libke, Ryan Rittley and Avery Springborn all had the same answer: “Practice more!”

Every member of the team had something they hoped to pass along to next year’s team.

Rittley felt that next year’s team members needed to “put their entire attention into their speech.” Libke claimed that they needed to “practice, because state is rough.” Kruger observed that next year’s team members needed to “take forensics seriously and work hard,” adding that they needed to make sure they “had fun.”

To make state finals, Osantowski suggested that they “just be amazing.”

Osantowski made a great run at making the final round, missing the top six by only four speaker points.

“Rachael actually beat the person in front of her in the semifinal round, but he had a slightly better score going in,” explained McPherson. “If you consider that a perfect score is 1,000 points and she had 975 at the end of the semifinal round I think she did pretty well for herself.”

The team would like to thank Superintendent Cheryl Wojtas and the rest of the members of the school system for all of the assistance in attending state finals.

“With so many teams falling by the wayside due to budget cuts it is nice to have the support of both the school system and the community,” McPherson remarked. “Gaylord has a great program because we have great students and support for them.”